Conventionally, mechanical and electrical machining of products using NC data are conducted in various industrial fields. In the mechanical machining, machining operation has been simplified by using, for example, computer-aided simulation in various machining.
In commercially-available conventional CAM systems, operations such as generating and editing of a tool path and converting of NC data can be conducted with computer aid. However, these systems require interactive operations such as determining of machining procedure, tool profile, tooling (a form of a whole tool system including holder and the like), machining mode and cutting conditions that depend on an operator, and even editing of the tool path of the CAM depends on an operator.
Under these circumstances, the present inventors have proposed a method of determining tooling, which is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 9-179620, and have automated the determination of tooling with computer-aid that allows correction of cutting conditions considering tooling rigidity and the like.
In the mechanical machining, information regarding machining method is determined at proper times, and the present inventors have proposed a method therefor disclosed, for example, in the publication of JP-A No. 11-235646. The determining method disclosed in the publication generates a plurality of candidate process orders, the method comprising: selecting candidate processes in descending order of machining efficiency among a plurality of candidate processes to rapidly determine a machining method with high machining efficiency; seeking, based on the shapes before and after machining, a maximum machining area that can be machined with a selected candidate process; seeking a difference between the maximum machining area and the shape after machining; repeating the selecting of candidate process until the difference becomes within tolerance; arranging the selected candidate processes; and setting the finally selected candidate process as the final process.
In this manner, the method determines a machining method by, for each candidate process order, seeking effective machining time based on machining capabilities, machining amount and loading time of each process; seeking the sum of effective machining time by summing up the effective machining time of each process; and setting a candidate process order with the shortest sum of effective machining time as the machining method. This method has a great effect in that the machining time is reduced.
In NC machining, however, demand for a further improved machining accuracy and workability is increasing. Even if a conventional NC machining system is computer-aided and employs an NC machining simulator and a commercially-available CAM, the system requires an operator to perform staged operations. That is, the conventional system requires cogitation of a skilled operator in determination of machining procedure, tool profile, tooling (a form of a whole tool system including holder and the like), machining mode, cutting conditions, and the like. The conventional system also requires correction of cutting conditions, and the like, at the final stage of establishing conditions after a commercially-available CAM is used. Thus, it is difficult to reduce time in establishing conditions in the conventional system. For more complicated machining, such as machining a work piece having especially complex profile, a larger number of cutting conditions must be corrected and problems in machining accuracy and machining speed remain unsolved.
The present invention has been devised to solve these problems and an object of the present invention is to improve machining accuracy and operation speed by automating determination of machining procedure, tool profile, tooling (a form of a whole tool system including holder and the like), machining mode, cutting conditions, and the like. Another object of the present invention is to provide an integrated CAM system, a method of integrally generating NC data, a machining planning system, a machining data generating apparatus and a program that remarkably improve the speed of condition determination and realize accurate and rapid machining even in machining a complex profile that conventionally required a number of manual operations.